"What happened to stock pundit Jim Cramer?" asked Diane Brady in BusinessWeek. He never claimed to be an investigative reporter, yet he sat there "cowed" as Stewart slammed him and CNBC for "not being more of a watchdog before the crisis." Since when is Cramer a "somber spokesman" whose job is answering for CNBC's every error on a comedy show?

Jon Stewart is more than the host of a comedy show, said James Fallows in The Atlantic. "It is clichéd to praise Stewart as the 'true' voice of news; and, yes, it is too piñata-like to join the smacking of CNBC." But, "I found this—the Stewart/Cramer slaughter—incredible." Stewart humbled Cramer, "without excessive showboating," in a way that "did the journalistic sensibility proud."